Light-spot-indication gas range switch device

ABSTRACT

A light-spot-indication gas range switch device includes a switch knob seat to which an LED is mounted. A cam ring is fixed to a rotary shaft of a gas valve in such a way that a bulge section of an outer circumference of the cam ring corresponds to a rotation range within which a rotary switch knob opens the gas valve and a truncated section of the outer circumference corresponds to a location where the gas valve is closed. The micro-switch support bracket supports a micro-switch and is arranged in such a way that a switching tab of the micro-switch engages the outer circumference of the cam ring. When the rotary switch knob is turned to set up a range flame, the micro-switch is triggered and the LED is powered by an electrical source to give off light indicating the turning on of the gas range switch device.

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention generally relates to a light-spot-indication gas range switch device, which conducts on a light-emitting diode mounted to a switch knob seat at the same time when the switch knob seat is turned to set up a range flame, so that the light-emitting diode gives off light to indicate that the switch device is turned and which shuts down the light-emitting diode to indicate the switch device is closed at the time when the switch knob seat is turned to close the switch device.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART

Gas ranges are commonly used to cook food. A conventional gas range comprises a rotary shaft that is retained in a switch knob seat or is directly mounted to a control panel of the gas range for turning a gas valve. An off/on mark line is formed at a location corresponding to an angular position where the gas valve is opened/closed, whereby a user may identify if the gas valve is open to dispense gas and a flame is being set up by simply viewing if the location of the switch knob seat is angular offset from the mark line. It is common practice of the gas range that gas is released and a range flame is set up immediately after the switch knob seat is turned to angularly displace away from the off/on mark line. It is often an easy way to identify if gas is properly supplied by eye viewing the intensity of the range flame. However, in case that the range flame is adjusted to be so weak to be identified by bear eyes, a user must check if the switch knob seat reaches the off/on mark line to ensure that the gas range is turned off and to avoid the risk that the range continuously burns gas in a non-loaded condition, which may leads to damage to a cookware or even the user, when the user mistakenly believes the range is shut down. Further, when the range is used to cook juicy food and boil water, if the juice or water spills and puts off the range flame, or in case that the range flame is put off by blows, although there is no fire remaining, gas is still released. This may cause gas poisoning of people staying indoors. Such a dangerous condition of the gas range is not easily identified by bear eyes, unless the off/on mark line is simultaneously watched. People may watch the mark line to surely identify that the range fire is put off but gas is still being released so that they can immediately turn off the gas valve to ensure safety.

Further, with the development of modern society, there are many areas in the world where the population of aged people is significantly increased. A lot of house owners or the family members of the house owners are aged people, who have poor or weak eye sights. Even in a bright environment, they are not fully capable to read the off/on mark line, not to mention in an insufficiently lighted environment. Thus, it is desired to improve the construction of the gas range in the respect of identification of the range rotary switch and the associated off/on mark to make them highlighted so as to facilitate the identification thereof by the people having poor eye sight.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention aims to provide a light-spot-indication gas range switch device that comprises a switch knob seat having a surface in which a light-emitting diode (LED) is mounted, a cam ring, a micro-switch, a micro-switch support bracket, a battery holder, and electrical wires, wherein the cam ring has a core portion fit over and fixed to a rotary shaft of a gas valve in such a way that a bulge section of an outer circumference of the cam ring corresponds to a rotation range within which a rotary switch knob that rotates the shaft to open the gas valve and a truncated section of the outer circumference corresponds to a location where the gas valve is closed by the rotation of the shaft by the rotary switch knob; wherein the micro-switch support bracket is attached to a valve flange of the gas valve close to the rotary shaft in such a way that a switching tab of the micro-switch that is fixed in the micro-switch support bracket is set to engage the outer circumference of the cam ring; wherein the battery holder receives and retains at least one battery therein and is mounted to an enclosure of the gas range at a location remote from a burner of the range and accessible by a user; wherein the battery holder, the LED, and the micro-switch are electrically coupled together by the wires, whereby with such an arrangement, when the rotary switch knob is turned to set up a range flame, the LED gives off light to indicate the turning on of the gas range switch device. A user of the gas range may easily identify if gas is conducted on by simply viewing the LED. This allows a person who is poor or weak in eyesight to equally and easily identify the operation condition of the gas range.

Further, the light-spot-indication gas range switch device according to the present invention is constructed in such a way that connections of electrical wires to the battery holder, the LED, and the micro-switch are respectively enclosed by insulation made of a material that is resistant to electricity and heat, whereby there is no worry about fire disasters caused by electric spark induced by leakage of electric current during turning on/off the LED that ignites leakage gas and safety of operation can be ensured.

The foregoing objective and summary provide only a brief introduction to the present invention. To fully appreciate these and other objects of the present invention as well as the invention itself, all of which will become apparent to those skilled in the art, the following detailed description of the invention and the claims should be read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Throughout the specification and drawings identical reference numerals refer to identical or similar parts.

Many other advantages and features of the present invention will become manifest to those versed in the art upon making reference to the detailed description and the accompanying sheets of drawings in which a preferred structural embodiment incorporating the principles of the present invention is shown by way of illustrative example.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an exploded view showing a light-spot-indication gas range switch device in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the light-spot-indication gas range switch device of the present invention combined to a range valve.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing the light-spot-indication gas range switch device of the present invention combined to a range valve.

FIG. 4 is a front view of a switch knob seat of the light-spot-indication gas range switch device of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a right-side elevational view of the switch knob seat of the light-spot-indication gas range switch device of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a bottom view of the switch knob seat of the light-spot-indication gas range switch device of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of the switch knob seat of the light-spot-indication gas range switch device of the present invention.

FIG. 8 schematically illustrates the use of a gas range equipped with the light-spot-indication gas range switch device of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The following descriptions are exemplary embodiments only, and are not intended to limit the scope, applicability or configuration of the invention in any way. Rather, the following description provides a convenient illustration for implementing exemplary embodiments of the invention. Various changes to the described embodiments may be made in the function and arrangement of the elements described without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.

With reference to FIGS. 1-3, wherein FIG. 1 is an exploded view showing the construction of a light-spot-indication gas range switch device in accordance with the present invention and FIGS. 2 and 3 are a perspective view and a cross-sectional view of the gas range switch device of the present invention respectively, the light-spot-indication gas range switch device of the present invention comprises a switch knob seat 10 having a surface in which a light-emitting diode (LED) 11 is inlayed, a cam ring 20, a micro-switch 30, a micro-switch support bracket 40, a battery holder 50, and electrical wires 60, 61, 62. The cam ring 20 has a core portion 20A forming a bore and the cam ring 20 is fit over a rotary shaft 71 of a gas valve 70 by a bolt 20B radially extending therethrough a circumferential wall of the cam ring 20 and engaging the shaft 71, whereby a bulge section 21 of the cam ring 20 corresponds to the rotation range of a manually-operated rotary switch knob 80 that rotates the shaft 71, within which rotation range the gas valve 70 is open, and an outer circumference truncated section 22 corresponds to a location where the gas valve 70 is closed by the rotation of the shaft 71 by the rotary switch knob 80. The micro-switch support bracket 40 is attached, preferably by means of bolting, to a valve flange 72 of the gas valve 70 close to the rotary shaft 71, whereby a switching tab 31 of the micro-switch 30 that is fixed in the micro-switch support bracket 40 is set in such a condition to engage, in a resilient condition, the outer circumference of the cam ring 20. The battery holder 50 receives and retains at least one battery 51 therein and is mounted to an enclosure 90 of the gas range at a location remote from a burner 91 of the range and accessible by a user. The battery holder 50, the LED 11, and the micro-switch 30 are electrically coupled together by the wires 60, 61, 62. With such an arrangement, when the rotary switch knob 80 is turned to set up a range flame, the rotation of the rotary switch knob 80 drives the rotary shaft 71 to rotate the cam ring 20, whereby the bulge section 21 of the cam ring 20 pushes away and resiliently deflects or deforms the switching tab 31 of the micro-switch 30 and the micro-switch 30 is triggered to conduct on, allowing electrical current to flow from the battery holder 50 to the LED 11 and thus lighting the LED 11 to show an indication to a user that the rotary switch knob 80 has been turned on to release gas. On the other hand, to turn off the gas range and put off the range flame, the rotary switch knob 80 is rotated in a reversed direction, causing the rotary shaft 71 to rotate the cam ring 20 in such a way to position the truncated section 22 corresponding to the switching tab 31, thereby releasing the deflection or deformation of the switching tab 31 and the micro-switch 30 is closed to cut off the electrical current flowing to the LED 11. The LED 11 is no longer lit, indicating that the rotary switch knob 80 surely turns off the supply of gas.

Connections of the electrical wires 60, 61, 62 with the battery holder 50, the LED 11, and the micro-switch 30 are respectively enclosed by an insulation 63, 64, which is made of a material that is resistant to electricity and heat for the purposes of preventing sparks caused by leaking electricity occurring during tuning on/off the LED 11 from igniting gas leakage of the gas range.

The structure inlaying the LED 11 in the switch knob seat 10 will be described with reference to FIG. 4, which shows a front view of the switch knob seat, FIG. 5, which shows a right-side elevational view of the switch knob seat 10, FIG. 6, which shows a bottom view of the switch knob seat 10, and FIG. 7, which shows a cross-sectional view of the switch knob seat 10. The switch knob seat 10 has an outer circumferential wall that forms a cone 12 expanded in a direction toward a bottom of the gas range. The cone 12 has a truncated free end that is centrally recessed to form a knob receiving cavity 13. A shaft bore 14 is formed centrally in the bottom of the cavity 13. The cone 12 forms, at a location corresponding to a pre-set switching on position of the rotary switch knob 80, an LED receiving opening 15 in which the LED 11 having an outer configuration having a shape corresponding to the opening 15 is received. In the embodiment illustrated, the LED 11 is made in the form of a block having a prismatic or polyhedral configuration, which is complementary in shape to the opening 15 so that when received in the opening 15, the LED 11 is substantially aligned with the outer surface of the cone 12.

With such a construction, as shown in FIG. 8, to assemble, the switch knob seat 10 is mounted to a front control panel 92 of the gas range at a proper location and the rotary switch knob 80 is fit in the knob receiving cavity 13 with a central portion thereof fit over the shaft 71 so that the switch knob seat 10 itself may give off light to indicate if the rotary switch knob 80 is turned on to release gas to the burner 91. With such an arrangement, easy identification of gas being released to the burner 91 and proper ignition being conducted or gas is leading without properly setting up a flame can be made. This identification is also apparent to those of poor or weak eyesight.

While certain novel features of this invention have been shown and described and are pointed out in the annexed claim, it is not intended to be limited to the details above, since it will be understood that various omissions, modifications, substitutions and changes in the forms and details of the device illustrated and in its operation can be made by those skilled in the art without departing in any way from the spirit of the present invention. 

1. A light-spot-indication gas range switch device comprises a switch knob seat having a surface in which a light-emitting diode (LED) is mounted, a cam ring, a micro-switch, a micro-switch support bracket, a battery holder, and electrical wires, wherein the cam ring has a core portion fit over and fixed to a rotary shaft of a gas valve in such a way that a bulge section of an outer circumference of the cam ring corresponds to a rotation range within which a rotary switch knob that rotates the shaft to open the gas valve and a truncated section of the outer circumference corresponds to a location where the gas valve is closed by the rotation of the shaft by the rotary switch knob; wherein the micro-switch support bracket is attached to a valve flange of the gas valve close to the rotary shaft in such a way that a switching tab of the micro-switch that is fixed in the micro-switch support bracket is set to engage the outer circumference of the cam ring; wherein the battery holder receives and retains at least one battery therein and is mounted to an enclosure of the gas range at a location remote from a burner of the range and accessible by a user; wherein the battery holder, the LED, and the micro-switch are electrically coupled together by the wires, whereby with such an arrangement, when the rotary switch knob is turned to set up a range flame, the LED gives off light to indicate the turning on of the gas range switch device.
 2. The light-spot-indication gas range switch device according to claim 1, wherein connections of the electrical wires with the battery holder, the LED, and the micro-switch are respectively enclosed by insulation made of a material that is resistant to electricity and heat.
 3. The light-spot-indication gas range switch device according to claim 1, wherein the switch knob seat has an outer circumferential wall that forms a cone expanded in a direction toward a bottom of the gas range, the cone having a truncated free end that is centrally recessed to form a knob receiving cavity, a shaft bore being formed centrally in a bottom of the knob receiving cavity, the cone forming, at a location corresponding to a pre-set switching on position of the rotary switch knob, an LED receiving opening in which the LED is fit, the LED being in the form of a block having a prismatic or polyhedral configuration having a shape that when received in the opening, is substantially aligned with the outer surface of the cone. 